Dance or Feast First? It Doesn't Matter
by Undercover-Dark-Knight
Summary: After an argument between Ephraim and Tana over Yuletide celebrations, Tana runs off - into the middle of a snowstorm. Ephraim sets off to find her. Will he make it in time to save her?


Hey There, Darkeclipse45! Here's your Secret Santa Fic! Hope you enjoy!

It's an Ephraim/Tana, with action in the middle. Not really an adventure though. It's quite a bit of fluff -a lot of it, actually. Hope it's not too much! The story isn't too original, but I'm not very good with writing to deadlines - a little rushed, IMO, but still a decent fic.

Sorry but i couldn't put together two decent sentences for a Heath/Priscilla fic and I don't really know Tellius that well. I know they were more favoured, just i couldn't write anything convincing.

* * *

Eirika could have seen this one coming ages ago. A year, to be exact.

It had been a year and a half since the defeat of the Demon King, and it had become customary for the comrades who had assisted in the task to come together for Yuletide celebrations. Frelia had hosted last year's celebrations, since Jehanna Hall, Rausten Keep and Castle Renais were all still being rebuilt from the ravages of the war.

"It's always been the custom in Renais to have the feast first, and the dance afterwards." Ephraim insisted.

"But Ephraim, dancing on a full stomach is no good!" protested Tana.

"Feast first."

"Dance first."

"Feast!"

"Dance!"

Ephraim sighed. "Eirika, what do you think?"

Eirika had to resist the urge to follow her twin brother's action and sigh. The preparations for Yuletide were complete – except for this stumbling block; whether to have the feast first or the dance first. Honestly, the guests wouldn't mind too much – after all, the idea behind getting together for Yuletide celebrations was for people to catch up with those they hadn't seen in the last year, not whether which one should come first.

"Well," Eirika began, "it has been customary for the feast to come first…"

"See!" Ephraim cut her off. "I told you! The feast should go first!"

"Eirika, how could you?" Tana cried as she got out of her chair and ran off.

The urge to sigh was too much. Eirika slumped in her chair. "That worked out well, brother. I was going to say that people wouldn't mind too much, but you didn't really let me finish, did you? Sort it out between Tana and yourself before the guests get here." She stood up and walked out. As usual, Seth was outside, waiting for her.

Seeing the dejected look on her face (and Tana fleeing the room moments before), he knew something had happened. "Something the matter, milady?" he inquired.

"Seth, we're married now. Are you still going to call me that?" Eirika feigned irritation.

"My apologies, mi- Eirika. It's just that…"

She smiled mischievously and took his arm in hers. "I know, I know. Old habits are hard to break." She glanced back at the door, which Ephraim had yet to come out of. "Basically, Tana and Ephraim can't agree on whether we should have the feast first or the dance first."

"Well, if you were not able to mediate for them, then I believe it is a matter for them to sort out for themselves. Although, if I may say so, it seems a rather silly thing to be arguing about."

"It is, my love. It is."

* * *

Tana stormed down the hallway, fuming. How could she? How could Eirika, her best friend, side with Ephraim over her!

She decided to take her Pegasus out for a ride – it had often helped to clear her mind. Admittedly, this close to Yuletide meant the weather was beginning to get cold, but she would be out for only a little while before she'd come back, so she figured her riding gear and a cloak would suffice. Snow had already begun to fall when she left the castle, but it wasn't too bad.

She flew to one of her favourite places in the Renais countryside – a secluded lake about half an hour's ride from the castle, the place where Ephraim had proposed to her. She sat near the frozen lake's edge, pulling her cloak closer. It was getting a bit cold, but she didn't feel ready to return to the castle yet. The snowfall was getting heavier and heavier, but she could still see in front of her quite well.

_Perhaps I was being unreasonable, _she thought to herself. _Come to think of it, I guess it doesn't matter that much… but I won't be able to dance gracefully on a full stomach! Doesn't Ephraim see that?_

Lost in her thoughts, it wasn't until the snow severely impaired her vision that she realised she should have already returned.

She got up and began walking back towards the tree where she'd tied up her pegasus. Not that she had to worry about him in this weather; pegasi were known for their ability to endure the elements – something which gave them an advantage over the magic types in combat.

Her foot caught on a root, and she tripped. Tana twisted to avoid landing oddly, and that proved to be her biggest mistake. When she got up again, she didn't know which direction she had been facing earlier.

In other words, she couldn't find her pegasus – and her way back.

* * *

Ephraim paced back and forth in the meeting room. _Yes, it is true that Frelia celebrates Yuletide with the dance first and the feast afterwards,_ Ephraim thought to himself.

Actually, right now, he didn't care about that too much. Tana had been stormed out almost an hour ago, and yet – nothing. She wasn't anywhere to be found. Tana had always come back not too long after a heated argument to settle things, so it was natural that he was worried.

_Wait… could it be?_ He rushed to the stables, hoping that she hadn't gone out. It unfortunately proved to be true. Her pegasus' stall was empty. Tana had flown out and gotten herself caught in a snowstorm.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Forde sitting against a pillar, pretending to be asleep. Ephraim never worked out why he picked the stables, of all places. "Cut it out Forde, I know you're awake."

Forde opened his eyes and stood up, "I can never fool your majesty, can I? What can I do for you?"

"Queen Tana flew out on her pegasus a little while ago. Were you in the stables when she went out?"

Forde wasn't sure what was going on, but Ephraim's urgent tone told him something had happened. Something bad. "Yes. If I recall correctly, I believe she headed south. Although she should have been back by… Oh." His gaze settled on the empty stall where the pegasus should have been.

Ephraim had already walked off to ready his horse. "Forde, your cloak and a lance please, and tell Princess Eirika about all that's happened."

Forde handed his cloak and a lance to his King. Then he removed a small vial on his belt and handed it to Ephraim as well. "You should take this with you too, your majesty."

Ephraim took the elixir and nodded. "If I'm not back before the guests start to arrive, tell Eirika to greet them. And with that, he rode out into the snowstorm, praying that he wouldn't be too late.

"Well, I suppose I should go find the General and the Princess now. And it was such a nice nap too…"

* * *

Tana whistled for her pegasus yet again, despite knowing that it would be futile. The wind was just too strong.

She wrapped her cloak tighter around herself. She had been in the snow for a while already, and if she didn't find shelter soon, she would succumb to the freezing cold.

Reaching out in front of her, she found a tree trunk of sorts. _Oh, good,_ she thought to herself. _I can hop from tree to tree and see if I can find my pegasus_.

That was when she realised that the tree trunk was furry. A little too furry.

And that it moved.

The "tree trunk" let out a roar, and swung round with one of his paws. Tana ducked instinctively at the roar, preventing the paw from tearing her head off her shoulders.

Her "tree trunk" had turned out to be a bear.

Tana ran as fast as her freezing legs could carry her.

* * *

Ephraim urged his horse onward, heading in the general direction of the lake. He had no proof that she was there, but it was as good a lead as anywhere. The snow severely hindered his vision, letting him see little but a few metres in front of him. It had lightened, but was still very bad nonetheless

He neared what he would have thought to be the lake when he heard a scream and a roar. That scream was definitely Tana's. The roar – well, it definitely wasn't something human.

Ephraim leapt off his horse and ran towards the scream, lance in hand. Given the situation, if he rode his mount into battle he could accidentally trample Tana.

As he ran past the last few trees, he finally got a glimpse at the roaring monstrosity. Standing a metre or so away from an unconscious, pale-lipped Tana, paws at the ready, was a fully grown mountain bear. And a big one too, by the looks of it.

The bear didn't waste any time with the newcomer, charging straight at Ephraim. Ephraim dodged to the side and stabbed at the bear, avoiding the mass of muscle and bone from trampling him underfoot. The bear let out a howl of pain and swiped at Ephraim with its paws. One of the claws them scraped Ephraim's armor, the sheer force was enough to unbalance Ephraim. He did a roll to avoid the bear's other paw from crushing his skull.

_Come on,_ Ephraim thought to himself. _How much harder than the Demon King can this bear be?_

That was when he realised three things. One, when fighting the Demon King, it was ten people versus one. A similar thing happened for bears – even for someone as arrogant as Pri- King Innes. Two, the ruins were creepy but vision had been clear. Three, he had been wielding the holy weapon Siegmund, not some random spear he'd just grabbed in haste. _Yep, this guy takes the cake_.

He stabbed at the creature again, injuring one of its hind legs. Ephraim had to wrench the spear out of the bear – it must have been caught on a bone or tendon of some sort.

The two second delay was all that the bear needed. It swung around with his left paw in a vicious uppercut, which Ephraim managed to dodge, but not entirely. One of the claws ripped through his armor and grazed his chest, but more importantly, another of his claws had completely torn off his upper arm guard and left a massive gash in his right arm.

Ephraim pulled away. Luckily the gash hadn't cut any major arteries, but nonetheless using his arm was out of the question. He had to end this quickly, lest he and Tana became food for the bear.

The bear smelled blood and charged again. Ephraim had one chance and one chance only. Gripping the spear in his left arm he waited until the bear reared up to swipe with its claws and plunged the spear straight through the bear. Mustering the last of his strength, he jumped back to avoid the now dying bear crushing him.

Ephraim felt his vision begin to swim, fumbling for the elixir Forde had given him earlier. Pouring about half the contents down his throat, he felt the magical concoction slowly restore his wounded arm.

Giving himself but a few moments rest, his attention switched to Tana. He didn't know how long she been out here, but he needed to get her to shelter, and fast. Quickly unbuckling his cloak, he wrapped it around her. Given her situation, a ride back to the castle was out of the question – half an hour in this weather would be too much for her, even with Forde's cloak.

If memory served him correctly, there was a cave near the foot of the mountain by the lakeside. The wind had died down now, so he whistled for his horse, and put Tana on it. He didn't know what happened to Tana's pegasus, but the animal could survive the most extreme of weather conditions, so unless the bear got to it first, it would be alright to leave it.

He only hoped he wouldn't run into any more bears on his way there.

* * *

Tana woke up to a small fire inside a cave. There was a familiar pair of arms wrapped around her, and a heavy cloak draped over them both.

"Awake at last, darling?" murmured Ephraim.

"What… happened to the bear?" she muttered groggily.

"I killed it."

Tana stared into the fire. "I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stay out so long. The snowstorm caught me by surprise."

"It's alright. I said things I shouldn't have, and that's why you went out in the first place."

"No, no, its my fault. It's silly to argue about Yulet…" Tana was cut off as Ephraim brought his lips to meet hers.

After that, the two of them sat in silence, watching the snow fall outside. It had picked up again, and they could see little outside the cave entrance.

"Well," Ephraim stood up, "it looks like you will have your way after all."

Tana looked up at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"There's nothing to eat here, but we can still dance if you want."

Tana stood up. "Of course!"

And the two of them danced into the night, ignorant of the blizzard outside.

"Happy Yuletide, Ephraim."

"Happy Yuletide to you, my love."

* * *

Note: Christmas is just a bit... no. I changed it to Yuletide because it seemed like it would fit the background to this story.

Please R&R!


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